The Nimbus-4 family is a direct derivative of its predecessors at the highest performance end of the Schempp-Hirth product range, the Nimbus-2 and Nimbus-3.

It is a 2-seat, high-performance motorized glider, constructed from fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) composites, featuring full span flight controls and a T-tail (with fixed horizontal stabilizer and two-piece elevator).

The forward fuselage (cockpit) is constructed of Kevlar, carbon and glass fiber laminate, reinforced by a double skin on the sides with integrated surrounding canopy frame and seat pan mounting flanges.

The horizontal stabilizer is constructed of glass fiber/foam core sandwich with carbon fiber reinforcements.

The Nimbus-4DM is powered by a liquid-cooled 44 kW Bombardier Rotax 535C engine with a 3:1 belt reduction drive.

An electrically driven spindle drive (jackscrew) extends the propeller pylon upwards and forward from the engine bay.

[2] U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators queried the German Luftfahrt-Bundesamt (LBA), Germany's equivalent of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), regarding the accident history of the Nimbus-4DM in conjunction with a 1999 accident near Minden, Nevada where both occupants of the aircraft were killed.

Examination of the wreckage disclosed that the left and right outboard wing sections failed symmetrically at two locations.

In this case, the NTSB determined "that the probable cause of this accident was the pilot's excessive use of the elevator control during recovery from an inadvertently entered spin and/or spiral dive during which the glider exceeded the maximum permissible speed, which resulted in the overload failure of the wings at loadings beyond the structure's ultimate design loads."

The second involved a collision with the ground during takeoff in Fuentemilanos, Spain, on 27 July 1997, which resulted in two fatalities.

According to preliminary information supplied by the Spanish authorities, the pilot stated they were in a turn when a heavy thermal caused the glider to enter a steep descending spiral.

Additionally, during training for the World Gliding Championships in New Zealand in 1995, a Nimbus-4 (owned by the French Air Force) was destroyed in a midair breakup accident.